ICYMI: Attorney General Becerra Leads Pushback Against Trump Administration's Unconstitutional Decision to Add Citizenship Question on 2020 Census

Last night, the Trump Administration decided to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census questionnaire. Specifically, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the addition, incorrectly contending that it would “help enforce the Voting Rights Act.”

A mere hours after the announcement was made, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed suit, the first to do so in the nation. His lawsuit came on the heels of an op-ed he co-wrote with California Secretary of State Alex Padilla for the San Francisco Chronicle: 

The size of your child’s kindergarten class. Homeland security funds for your community. Natural disaster preparation. Highway and mass transit resources. Health care and emergency room services. 

Vital services such as these would be jeopardized and our voice in government diminished if the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 count resulted in an undercount. Beyond its constitutional role in redistricting, a proper count conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau shapes our everyday lives. If the bureau is ill-prepared for the job or a count is faulty, every state, every neighborhood, faces the risk of losing its fair share of federal funding for its people and its taxpayers. 

Every 10 years, the bureau must count each person in our country — whether citizen or noncitizen — “once, only once, and in the right place.”

Read the rest of the op-ed here. 

Here is some coverage that followed the lawsuit, ICYMI: 

Washington Post: California sues Trump administration over addition of citizenship question to census

The state of California sued the Trump administration Monday night, arguing that the decision to add a question about citizenship in the 2020 Census violates the U.S. Constitution. The state’s attorney general acted just after the Commerce Department announced the change in a late-night release.

Read the rest of the article here.  

New York Times: Despite Concerns, Census Will Ask Respondents if They Are U.S. Citizens

In a statement released Monday, the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had “determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census questionnaire is necessary to provide complete and accurate census block level data,” allowing the department to accurately measure the portion of the population eligible to vote. But his decision immediately invited a legal challenge: Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general... 

“The census numbers provide the backbone for planning how our communities can grow and thrive in the coming decade,” said Mr. Becerra. “What the Trump administration is requesting is not just alarming, it is an unconstitutional attempt to discourage an accurate census count.” 

Read the rest of the article here.